WiPC 2008 Resolution: Afghanistan

The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting at its 74th Congress in Bogota, Colombia, 17-22 September 2008

Concerned about the general deterioration of the situation for freedom of expression in Afghanistan, in which writers and journalists are detained for criticising authorities or contacting sources disliked by the government and where a new media law furthermore threatens free expression in the country;

Deeply concerned that twenty-three year-old Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, journalism student at Balkh university and reporter for the local daily Jahan-e-Naw (The New World), was arrested on 27 October 2007 in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province, northern Afghanistan for distributing allegedly anti-Islamic literature;

Appalled that Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh was detained by National Directorate of Security (NDS) forces on blasphemy charges after having been accused of downloading and distributing an article of which he was not the author, and sentenced to death by the court in Mazar-i-Sharif in January 2008 without the right to proper defence or to be heard;

Alarmed that the case has still not been dismissed by the Court of Appeal in Kabul;

Also alarmed by the attitudes of various political leaders and groups supporting the death sentence;

Furthermore deeply concerned about the case of journalist Ahmed Ghous Zalmai and Mullah Quri Mushtaq, who were sentenced on 11 September 2008 by a Kabul court to 20 years in prison for publishing a Dari translation of the Koran;

Calls upon the Afghan authorities to guarantee the immediate and unconditional release of journalist Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh, Ahmed Ghous Zalmai and Mullah Quri Mushtaq in accordance with Article 34 in the Afghan constitution and Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

Also calls upon governments all over the world to urge the Afghan government to see that justice is being upheld according to the ideals of free expression in Afghanistan - and thus to end the imprisonment of journalists and writers for their writings.